Unlike many houses of God poking up through the mishmash skyline of Norwich, the old church of St Giles, so ancient it got a mention in the Domesday Book of 1086, is still saving souls today. At this time of year, it’s ringed by a dripping abundance of wisteria and very pretty it looks too. As the old saying goes:

Norwich has a Church for every week of the year and a pub for every day of the year.*

I took some snaps on the way to my place of worship, the Coach and Horses.

St Giles

*Sadly, this is no longer true pub-wise though there are still plenty of places to take communion.

Imagine the absurdity of two openly gay, married, middle aged, middle class men escaping the liberal sanctuary of anonymous London to relocate to a Muslim country. I chronicled our exploits with the mad, the bad, the sad and the glad in a blog for the whole world to ignore. Then came the book which became a critically acclaimed best seller. Its success opened out a whole new career for me, firstly as an author, and now as an indie publisher. Who'd have thought it? Certainly not me. In June 2012, we ended our Anatolian affair and paddled back to Britain on the evening tide, washing up in Norwich, a surprising city in eastern England, then to the wilds of Norfolk as the only gays in the village. I’m sometimes nostalgic for our encounters with the hopeless, the hapless and, yes, the happy go lucky. They gave me an unexpected tale to tell and for this I thank them.

13 thoughts on “Wisteria Lane”

  2. just got word that my old pub, the Royal Oak (of which I was landlord), has just closed down – back then there were three pubs in the village and another half dozen on the outskirts. I feel like Henny-Penny, the sky is collapsing and they’re taking the pub out of public house!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Imagine a church that old and still standing. 😮
    I like pubs as well. I lived in a mining town as a kid. I bet the population wasn’t any more than 1500 and they had three hotels. I guess miners are thirsty folk. 😀 o_O

    Like

    Reply

    1. The downside is we don’t have the best summers. A couple of warm days and that’s it or so it seems. I guess that’s why so many Brits head for the Med.

      Like

      Reply

Share your thoughts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.